Montgomery, AL, March 2, 2001— With one day remaining in the special
session, it is clear that none of the proposed legislative initiatives
designed to divide K-12 and higher education, will be adopted. The
Higher Education Partnership and the 10,500 faculty, staff and student
members are pleased that our friends in the Alabama Senate and Alabama
House of Representatives have voiced their strong disagreement with
efforts to force higher education to bear a larger share of the
proration burden.

Today's decisive vote for Senate Bill 24 showed that the Alabama
Senate, under the leadership of Lt. Gov. Steve Windom, was not going
to allow higher education to be treated any different than K- 12.
Many House and Senate leaders worked aggressively to support the
university position of equal treatment and their effort is greatly
appreciated by the 150,000 families within Alabama's university
community. No doubt, the legislative outcome is a victory for the
universities!

However, the state must not lose focus on the revenue question.
Only by generating additional financial support for K-12, post-secondary
and universities, will the state truly solve this problem. The Partnership
looks forward to working with other education organizations, businesses
and civic groups as we build support for properly funding public
education.

A productive educational system does not pit K-12 against higher
education. The Partnership thanks the thousands of faculty, staff,
student and alumni supporters who actively entered into this process.
Their participation in rallies, phone banks, etc. made a difference.
Now, we are encouraging all of them to focus their energies on the
adoption of the 2001-2002 budget that provides funding that "measures
up to the competition." The 2001-2002 budget proposal must be rewirtten
and higher education's portion increased. .